Surface Mount Technology is the preferred method of automated production of electronic printed circuit boards. Machines for pick-and-place mounting of electronic components on a substrate, such as a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), or a substrate for a System in Package (SiP) component are subject to different, often contradictory demands, such as mounting speed, mounting precision, size, prize, etc. The expression “pick and place” is understood by the person skilled in the art as describing the very mounting operation where a mounting head is moved to a component feeder area, where the mounting head picks one or more electronic components from one or more pick-up positions of component feeders or tape guides, and then is moved to a mounting area where the mounting head places the component or components on the substrate.
Supplies of a certain type of component, e.g. a certain specified type of capacitor, resistor, diode or IC are supplied on trays carrying one type of component or on sticks or, as has become most common today, on tapes in reels with a series of pockets of appropriate depth in the tape, holding one component in each pocket. The reels have varying widths between 8 mm and 44 mm. A row of component tape reels, each reel representing a certain type of component, are typically placed in a certain slot/position (among a predefined number of compartments or slots adapted to receive one reel each) in a trolley having a driving/feeding mechanism, or a certain compartment/slot/position in a non-motorized bin which in turn is placed in a magazine, or pick-and-place machine, having a driving/feeding mechanism such as a motor.
When preparing an upcoming SMT job, the component tape reels are typically pre-loaded into their respective component feeders, or tape guides, before they are placed in a motorized trolley, or non-motorized bin. The component feeders, or tape guides, may or may not therefore have their own built-in tape advancing/driving mechanism, e.g. a motor, and are adapted to guide and/or feed components of the component tape reels to their respective feeder positions, or pick-ip positions of the pick-and-place machine, as the mounting head of the pick-and-place machine rapidly picks components out of their pockets and place them on the board. Component manufacturers deliver the components in standard reels of pocket-tape with a thin cover tape closing the pockets. This pocket cover tape must be removed by some method before the component can be picked out of its pocket.
As mentioned above, the tape guides or feeders are used to feed and/or guide the component tape to the pick-and-place machine as the components are picked out of the pockets. One such tape guide or feeder is described in various patents by the applicant, e.g. EP 1 381 265 B1, incorporated herein by reference. This type of component tape guide or feeder has no built-in tape advancing mechanism. Rather, the tape guide or feeder is mounted for use in the pick-and-place machine so that a feeding mechanism, e.g. a feeding wheel in the tape magazine or pick-and-place machine protrudes through the tape guide or feeder into contact with the pre-threaded tape. Another type of component tape guide has a built-in tape advancing mechanism. The tape guide or feeder is mounted for use in the pick-and-place machine so that an in-feeder built-in feeding mechanism or tape advancing mechanism advances the tape, e.g. a feeding wheel in the feeder into contact with the pre-threaded tape.
In state of the art solutions provided by the applicant, each tape guide or feeder has a specific identity in relation to the pick-and-place machine and in whatever sequential position the reel with its pre-threaded tape guide or feeder is placed in the machine, and the mounting head of the pick-and-place machine will, based on the identity of the tape guide and the feeder position it is feeding components to the pick-and-place machine from, properly find and pick-up the proper components from the tape pockets. A method of associating the identity of the tape guide or feeder used to the specifics of the components in the tape threaded into the guide or feeder is described in various patents by the applicant, e.g. EP 1 147 697 B1, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Bins are in state of the art systems provided by the applicant used to house a row of reels in a magazine as the pick-and-place machine picks components out of the pockets of the pocket-tape. A bin has a predefined number of slots adapted to receive reels. One such bin is shown in WO03024181 A1, incorporated herein by reference.
Therefore, there is a need to improve handling of components in an SMT system, in particular for improving the efficiency of storage and retrieval of components in an automated Surface Mount Device (SMD) warehouse.